Smear 1.2	for Sonique			created by mykel and xplo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About
-----
	We are back, and stronger than ever. You've wondered why there is
	no geiss for Sonique?  You've seen starwave and thought "Hey cool!
	But It could do more :/"? Well it CAN do more and the vis that came
	out after mykel took a look at its core is Smear. After a few days
	of (painful) coding hours we're standing right in front of one of
	the probably biggest visual projects ever done for Sonique. Ok ok..
	soo... what does it do? Well, it ships with a few "scripts" that we
	wrote for you. Smear now takes these Scripts, combines them and shows
	them to you in a way that will knock you out of your socks. :) Over the
	following days more and more details were added and new commands and
	possibilities were put into the script language. But enough of me
	talking and talking, go check out the vis!

FAQ
---

Q: But isn't this just G-Force for Sonique?
A: In its features it is a G-Force equivalent for Sonique, but it is not a
   rebadged version of the plugin.  See the section "Smear and G-Force"
   below for more information.

Q: How do I make new scripts myself?
A: The best way to learn the script language is to read the stutter.txt, then
   look at existing scripts with a texteditor.

Q: So, I've got a script, but I can't tell if it's working
A: The first thing that you should do is move all the other scripts of the
   same type out of the directory that Smear is looking for them, so that
   your script is the only one it can use.  I tend to make a directory under
   the current directory and move them there, as Smear does not descend into
   sub directories.  Assuming that the script is grammatically correct, it
   will be loaded and run as the only possibility.  If the script has an
   error in it, unfortunately, it won't be loaded, and a default script will
   be loaded instead, so you have to be sure that your script is grammatically
   correct.

Q: I've got a script working and it looks pretty. How can I distribute it?
A: The best way would be to email the script to an author (or best to both).
   Depending on how much scripts we get from you guys we might make some 
   compilations of the submitted scripts. (But please only submit really new
   scripts that eren't just our ones with a some changed scaling or similar)

Q: So how do a debug simple errors in my script if Smear won't even load
   them?
A: Usually when smear finds a script with an error it will silently skip it,
   however there is a configuration option in the VIS.INI file called
   "Debug Sciprts (True-False)".  If this is set to True then a error
   box will pop up during the initialisation process for each script with
   an error.

Q: What is the naming convension for scripts?
A: Each type of script must not only be in the correct directory, but must
   also have the correct file extension in order to be used by Smear.  All
   the script directories are directly below the directory that contains
   the actual smear visual plugin.  There are four types of script

       Script Type             Directory               Extension
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Move Map                Moves                   .sms
       Color Map               Color                   .scs
       Particle Script         Particle                .sps
       Waveform Script         Waveform                .sws

Q: Sometimes smear really slows down for a few seconds, then gets fast again, how
   can I prevent that?
A: On some slower computers crossfading of Movemaps can slow down the vis very much.
   If this happens for you, edit the vis.ini and set the value for: 
   "Movemap Fade Time (1/10ths of seconds)="
   to something really low like "1". (For details and instructions look below)

Q: What are the configuration options?
A: There are a number of configuration options that are settable in the sonique
   vis.ini file.  They are as follows:

     Movemap Hold Time (1/10ths of seconds)=??
     	This is how long a particular move map will be used before a new one
	is displayed.  Smear will not let you set the value very low, and it
	will only use the value you do set as a guide.

	Note: with this, as with all the time based configuration options,
	Smear will only use the figure given as a guide, the actual value
	will be +/- 50% each time it is used.

     Movemap Fade Time (1/10ths of seconds)=??
        This is how long to spend fading between one move map and the next.

     Colormap Hold Time (1/10ths of seconds)=??
     	How long to use a specific colormap script.

     Colormap Fade Time (1/10ths of seconds)=??
     	How long to spend fading between the current color map and the next
	one.

     Waveform Hold Time (1/10ths of seconds)=??
     	How long to use a specific waveform script before chaning to another.

     Waveform Fade Time (1/10ths of seconds)=??
     	How long to spend 'fading' between one waveform script and the next
	one.

     Particle Hold Time (1/10ths of seconds)=??
     	How long to display a particle script for.

     Particle Fade Time (1/10ths of seconds)=??
     	How long to spend fading in or fading out a particular particle script.

     Particle Chance per Frame (0-100)=??
     	What chance there is, per second, of a new particle starting.  For
	each particle that is currently running, this chance is reduced by
	a factor of itself (for example, if the base percentage is 10%, then
	there is a 1% chance of two running at once and a 0.1% chance of
	three).  Of course probability being the fickle thing this is, you'll
	get 3 at once often enough.

     Letter Box Percentage (10-100)=??
     	The height will never exceed the width multiplied by the letterbox
	percentage.  Values of around 35-50 give a good 'letterbox' look
	and allow for higher resolution or higher framerates when in full
	screen mode.

     Show Titles (True-False)=??
     	If true then whenever a new song is played the song title (and
	artist) is displayed.

Credits
-------
Mykel
mykel@earthling.net
xplo
xplo@xplo.org

Thanks to:
  Andy O'Meara, for creating G-Force, and being very inspiring.
  The Sonique Crew, for creating such a kickass player.

Smear and G-Force
-----------------
When we were creating this visual plugin many concepts were borrowed from
Andy O'Meara's excellent win/macamp plugin 'G-Force'.  Also, the logic behind
the a number of the waveform, movemap and colormap scripts was used to create
scripts for use in Smear.  Through a serious oversight and lack of forward
planning, we failed to contact Andy to get his blessing.  This, combined
with the fact we failed to correctly attribute the contribution that the
'G-Force' plugin had to the development has lead to some thinking that
we are trying to take credit for the work that Andy did.

I will try to credit the various parts of the plugin to those
responsible as best as possible

+ 'bluring/fading/movemaps'.  I cannot credit this anywhere specifically,
  as the concept of movemaps and blurs occurs in a number of plugins,
  and indeed within Sonique iteself.

+ scripted movemaps, colormaps, waveforms, particles.  While the original
  idea for these was suggested by xplo, during the development of what was
  at the time "starwave2", the available types of script and some of the
  requirements for each type of script can be accredited to G-Force.
  For example, the ability to write movemap scripts using polar rather
  than cartesian coordinates, the use of HSV rather than RGB colors and
  the method of implementing multiple waveforms and multiple particles
  were ideas taken from observing G-Force's scripts.

+ the scripts.  A number of the scripts were converted from the G-Force 
  scripting language to the Smear scripting language.  Most of these
  failed to be correctly credited, for which we are sorry, and will
  endeavour to rectify before the next release of this software.

+ the code.  The actual plugin code (writen in C) is almost 100% original.

The ideas for this visual plugin are not original.  They are taken from
a number of other sources, particularly from G-Force, but also from other
plugins such as Geiss, Starwave, AcidSpunk and an unreleased sonique
plugin with the imaginative name of 'simple'.  Our intension was to supply
a visual of the same level of quality as G-Force, and others, to the
Sonique player.

We are sorry for any frustration or annoyance we may have caused Andy.
